"The Luxury of Dissension"

The night was cold, the sidewalks icy, but the unconcerned couple and their German shepherd pet strolled on. Other pedestrians, their faces buried in their coats, paid them little heed. How could they have known that Jack. Jackie and Clipper would be out walking the streets near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?

President Kennedy last week gave a relaxed impression. His Cuba policies were still under fire, and what to do about accommodating or getting around the bulky presence of Charles de Gaulle affected everything from the Common Market to NATO and nukes. But Kennedy moved cautiously and patiently, as if he had decided that there was nothing to be gained by haste.

Just Some Meetings. The President's top security advisers slipped into side gates at the White House, veered away from reporters and convened behind closed doors. On three successive days they discussed Europe's problems and their relation to the U.S. Emphasizing the prevailing informality. Presidential Press Secretary Pierre Salinger bridled at any suggestion that the meetings could be described as an urgent assembly of the executive committee of the National Security Council. "Just a series of meetings." insisted Pierre.

The list of conferees was impressive: U.S. Ambassadors David Bruce (to Britain), Walter Dowling (West Germany), Foy Kohler (U.S.S.R.). Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Former Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Special Trade Envoy Christian Herter. Vice President Lyndon Johnson. Whatever the tenor of their conversations. Kennedy indicated at a press conference that he was not planning any drastic new U.S. action to patch up the alliance.

Life & Death. "I think that we have to realize that we are going to have disagreements," he said, as if trying to calm an unruly classroom full of impatient newsmen. "They go to the heart of the alliance and the purposes of the alliance. They all involve the security of the U.S., and those questions which involve disagreements on the atom are very important questions and there are bound to be differences of opinion. And there should be, because they involve life and death."

In a sense, he argued, such arguments among allies indicate that things are getting better. "There isn't as much of an overt Soviet military threat to Berlin now as there was some months ago. Whatever success we may have had in reducing the threat, of course, we pay for by increased problems within the alliance. But if the threat comes again, the alliance will join together. For the period now, we are enjoying the luxury of internal dissension."

As to whose finger, or how many hands will control the multinational nuclear force that the U.S. is now advocating for Europe, that too just needs working out. "It is a very difficult area because the weapons have to be fired in five minutes, and who is going to be delegated on behalf of Europe to make this judgment? If it isn't the President of the U.S., it will have to be the President of France or the Prime Minister of Britain or someone else. There is no answer which will provide reassurance under the most extreme conditions for everyone. We feel that, however, with what we now have and what we are ready to propose, carrying out the Nassau proposal, that additional assurances can be given which we believe--which we hope--will satisfy the Europeans."

Why Succumb? When disagreements in the alliance break out, Kennedy implied, it is not necessary for the U.S. to immediately reconsider its own policies. "Whenever the U.S. has a disagreement with a foreign country, it is a mistake always to assume that the U.S. is wrong, and that by being disagreeable to the U.S., it is always possible to compel the U.S. to succumb."

The President seemed to be saying that now was the time for the U.S. to move calmly but persistently in pursuit of its present policies, which didn't really need much changing, though the U.S. was always willing to listen to "any other proposals." The tone was a little defensive, though it was not complacent, as if more than excited concern were needed to produce those other proposals. In the normal go-go of the New Frontier, this was quite a change.

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